Riga International Airport

Riga International is the largest airport in the Baltic states and the primary hub of airBaltic — ranked by BigAirports as the defining aviation gateway of the Baltic region and a case study in small-country national-carrier hub development. Located 10 km southwest of central Riga at 36 ft (11 m) elevation, RIX handles roughly 7.5M passengers annually and functions as both airBaltic's main operating base and a connecting node for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the wider European network. A single 10,499 ft (3,200 m) asphalt runway (18/36) serves the full operation. The terminal has been expanded multiple times since the 2001 post-Soviet rebuild, with a major northern pier extension underway to lift capacity past 12M passengers annually in support of airBaltic's Airbus A220-300 fleet expansion — RIX is the single largest A220 operator base in the world. The airline is a launch and reference customer for the A220 and operates the aircraft on routes from Tallinn, Vilnius and Riga bases covering the entire network. RIX's 150 routes to 101 destinations across 23 airlines is an exceptionally wide map for a city of Riga's size, a direct result of airBaltic's hub-and-spoke model which connects Baltic and Nordic origins to Western European, Mediterranean, North African, Middle Eastern and Central Asian destinations via Riga. Ryanair, Wizz Air, Lufthansa, Finnair, LOT, Turkish Airlines, KLM, Air France, British Airways and Emirates (via a tag) add further capacity. RIX also serves a substantial cargo operation and is a strategic Western-aligned airport following the geopolitical realignment of 2022 — its role as a secure Baltic gateway has reinforced its structural importance.